Official Luthiers Forum!

OK,

I have just about got the box making stuff down, side bending, bracing, etc.... (by no means an expert, but getting more comfortable with the box)

I have made about 5 necks with some degree of success, but that was what I first learned, so now I am going to begin making a neck especially for the box I am closing in on.

My question:

The heel end of the neck. I am going to have the heel join the block with a taylor style flat end to end joint screwed together. Should I drill the holes before I install the heel block to the ribs? I planned on doing it this way, so I can use my drill press and the screw holes align precisely between the block and the neck. But if I do it this way how do I make sure that my neck will end up even with the box once the top is on.

What I am picturing, or fearing is that I drill the holes in the wrong position and when I fasten the neck (by then with fret board) to the box the fret board will not end up resting on the body, either it will be too low or too high.

In other words how do you prepare your neck block and heel of the neck so they meet perfectly allowing the neck (without fret board) to run evenly to the top of the guitar?

Does that make sense?

I'm sure there is a way to do that but that is precisely why I didn't when I was doing bolt on necks.

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

OK.. keep in mind that the holes in the neck block have to have some play in them to allow for vertical fit up (discrepancy for top and back sanding) and lateral for neck centerline body centerline adjustment. So as long as they are centered on the centerline and properly spaced center to center. I don't think stack drilling is that big of an issue

that helps michaelp.

So you are saying, I can stack drill them for alignment/precision and then enlarge the holes on the bloc a bit?

That will be fine. Keep in the back of your mind that you can not put a .250" diameter bolt into a .250" hole and have the hole stay .250" diameter. The threads will inlarge the hole each time they are inserted. So
typiclly the through holes in the neck block are over sized a bit to give fit-up clearances. This means that you have to fit the neck and bolt it down. If removed after that point the neck would have to be realigned and tightened back down. This is why Taylor moved to there new neck design because the tongue gives the centerline to centerline alignment and the add-on wafers give the neck pitch or neck set adjustment.

So,

even still, if I choose to the neck/block in the mortise tenon fashion as in cumpianos book, I will still have slightly enlarged holes. But if I use this method I should leave the tongue a little oversized and trim it down to fit once I go to fit the finished neck with fretboard to the box.

BTW

Thanks for all your advice.

Yep but with bolt on mortise/tenon set-up the centerline or yaw of the neck in a relitive constant location that allows only minor deveation. the bolt holes in MT arangment dont do any thing as far as alignment other than allow the bolt to fit to the nuts in the tenon. With a butt joint the cleance in the hole and the bolt will allow the neck many differnt allignment errors. U just need to be sure you set it and bolt it up on center.

Jon-
You can drill the neck block holes after the block is glued to the ribs, using the drill press. Then you can correct for any mis-alignment that occurs when you are gluing the ribs to the blocks, and get the holes on the centerline.

It's relatively easy to clamp the neck (unshaped is easier to hold in a vise for drilling) in place on the finished body and mark the hole locations in the neck, using a transfer punch, old drill, or a sharpened length of 1/4" rod, reaching through the soundhole. You can drill the neck holes for the inserts using a hand-held electric drill. If you are worried about getting the holes 'at an angle', a guide block can be used.

As you can see, there are many ways to do this! I just like to use methods that make it easy to correct for my (frequent) errors.

Cheers
John